The world premiere production of Dream of the Red Chamber by San Francisco Opera has received worldwide attention, amounting to a 17-page spreadsheet of listings! In addition to press notices from CA and MN, there were articles in the Financial Times, the Economist, the Guardian, New York Times, and numerous articles in newspapers in China. These articles have also been forwarded to other sites, including sina.com, chinafile.com, and foreignpolicy.com.

Of particular significance is an editorial published in the influential Shanghai newspaper, Guangming Daily.

The writer, a board member of the Chinese Cultural Critics Association, understood that the mission of Dream was to bring the best of Chinese cultural heritage to the world stage. He marveled that the initiative came from Chinese Americans in the U.S. and not internally from China, and agreed with SF Opera’s General Director, Matthew Shilvock, that Dream was a SFO star-studded sophisticated in-depth production. Highly encouraged by this first successful landmark artistic adaptation of classic Chinese literature into English, the writer went on to envision a future where many more such cultural projects will follow this path-breaking one, where we will truly integrate Chinese and American cultures in a two-way manner, and where more in-depth studies of the splendor in Chinese culture will lead to more similarly successful artistic creations for the world stage. He is particularly pleased that Dream is ‘coming home’ to China. Chinese culture is no longer simply just an one-way outreach ‘export’ from China any more. It has now become part of humanity’s world cultural heritage, attracting a new audience in new ways. Taking a long view, the writer concluded that it no longer matters whether expositions of Chinese culture originate in China or overseas, he hopes that with Dream marking the beginning, there will be many, many more such efforts, with positive outcomes, to promote the understanding of Chinese classical literature throughout the world in the future.

San Francisco Opera has put together a book of highlights from these notices. Our own Paul Kwok has added a secion of us attending the premiere. You can view this 117-page book here.